WMCC 2013: Day 5 Early Round-up

More curling history was made in Wednesday's play at the Ford World Men's Curling Championship in Victoria, Canada when Japan recorded their first-ever victory over Canada, winning by 10-8.

Japan picked up their first ever win against Canada Photo: WCF/CCA/Michael Burns

They signalled their intentions in the third end when skip Yusuke Morozumi drew for three points to take a 3-2 lead. They scored another three points in the seventh end with another Morozumi draw to take a 7-4 lead.

Eventually, the game went into an extra end and, with the last stone, Morozumi picked out a scoring Canadian stone to score two points for a 10-8 win, Japan's first-ever victory over Canada.

Afterwards, Morozumi said: "I’m really, really happy, but I was nervous the whole game. We were able to score three points when we had the hammer, and those were the key points of the game." He added: "Team Canada is definitely the top team in the world, so this definitely makes a difference for us. I hope that kids who were watching this game in Japan are feeling like they can actually get into the sport and win at the world level."

After this, their second loss, Canada came back on to face Russia and made amends by winning a tight game by 8-5.

Switzerland also played in both of Wednesday's day-time sessions, and they had mixed fortunes.

In their morning game they faced Denmark and opened with a score of three points in the first end through a nice draw by skip Sven Michel. He followed that up with a further two points in the fifth end with a tap-up of his own stone, for a 5-1 lead before going on to win by 7-4.

However in the afternoon, they went down by 4-5 to China. This game was tight all the way, and Michel put it into an extra end when he drew for two points in the tenth end to tie the score at 4-4. But China's Rui Liu had last stone in this extra end and he used it to draw fro one point and a win, by 5-4.

Norway also had one win and one loss on Wednesday. In the morning, they faced Scotland and gave up steals of one and then two points in the first two ends. After this, Scotland took a 5-2 lead in the fourth end when skip David Murdoch hit to score two points.

In the seventh end, Murdoch again delivered two points with another hit, for a 7-4 lead on his way to an 8-4 win. After this win, Murdoch said: "We came out of the traps quick and forced a lot of pressure in the first few ends - usually it's the other way about when we play Norway, so it was good that we really took the game to them."

In the afternoon, Norway faced Sweden and it took all the way to an extra end for them to emerge as 6-5 winners. After this game, Norway's skip Thomas Ulsrud said: "That win was crucial. As usual for Norway, we're desperate for wins late in the week. If we lost this one we'd be depending on other teams but now it's in our own hands." He added: "It's always a close game between us and Niklas and the boys from Sweden, today it was our turn to win. Now we just need to keep it going. On paper we've got a pretty good chance, but everybody's beating everybody, so we'll see what happens."

Finland also played in these sessions, but lost in both. In the morning they lost out to USA in a tight game that was decided in the tenth end when American skip Brady Clark hit to score the two points needed to give his team a 7-6 win.

After this game, Darren Lehto, USA lead, said: "That was really big. Three wins gets us back in it, actually medals aren't even out of the question if we play well. It gets us into a good spot to secure our Olympic spot so we just have to keep playing well."

In the afternoon session Finland found themselves on the wrong end of a 9-6 verdict against the Czech Republic in a game that saw Czech skip Jiri Snitil score three points in both the third and fifth ends.

After this win, Snitil said: "We’re happy, but that was not an easy win for us. We got a good lead but the Finnish team played well in the second half and they were chasing us big-time. We had a hard time to get out of there."

Note: Standings do not reflect win-loss record and Draw Shot Challenge until end of the round robin

World Curling TV (WCTV), the television arm of the World Curling Federation, will provide extensive live and video-on-demand coverage to broadcasters outside Canada of the Ford World Men’s Curling Championship 2013. WCF Broadcast Partners for the 2013 World Curling Championships include Eurosport (Eurosport, Eurosport 2 and Eurosport Player) in Europe, NHK in Japan, CCTV-5 in China, Universal Sports Network in the USA, SporTV in Brazil. In Canada, TSN (RDS in French) will carry all Team Canada games throughout the round robin, followed by the playoffs and medal games. http://www.worldcurling.org/tv-web-coverage

In addition, Curling fans around the world are able to follow selected live coverage of the Events via the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV